osCommerce - Configuration
Configuration settings of Oscommerce
Now let's go to the admin control panel where you can configure your store http://yourwebsitename/catalog/admin/
Here you can configure everything from shipping to orders, customers and languages.
Let's start by click on "My Store". Once you click on the link, you will see store configuration choices.
To change something in this control panel, click to highlight that row and then click on edit and then click update.
Here is a short description of each category:
Store Name
The name of your store.
Store Owner
The store owner's name, or can also be the name of the store. This value will be in the "from" field of any email that is sent from the web site when sent, such as one that is sent to the customer after purchasing.
E-Mail Address
The store general email address used for receiving. This will be the destination for any emails sent through the web site, such as through the feedback from or notification emails sent by the web site as notification of new orders. This should be a SINGLE email address only.
E-Mail From
The email in the "from" field of any email that is sent from the web site It can be the same address as 'E-Mail Address'. This should be a SINGLE email address only.
Country
Your country of residence for the store.
Zone
The state or zone of residence for the store. This is necessary to enter, as it is used in any tax or shipping cost calculations.
Expected Sort Order
This is the order of how products should be displayed when viewed by the customer, either in ascending order (asc) or descending order (desc). The field used is the field described in 'Expected Sort Field'. For example, if the Expected Sort Field is the product name, and alphabetical (asc) was selected, the products will display a-z. If the expected date is chosen, for ascending order, earlier dates come before later dates.
Expected Sort Field
The column to sort by in the expected products box, either the product name or the expected date. This field works with the Expected Sort order to determine how to display items.
Send Extra Order Email to
The email address where you will receive orders. There can be several email addresses here for backups in this format: Name 1 <email@address1>, Name 2 <email@address2>. If the store owner's email is not in this listing the store owner will not be notified of an order. Whereas the 'E-Mail Address' above is for only one entry, this is how to effectively add addresses to that function.
Display Cart After Adding Product
If set to "true" this will show the shopping cart page immediately after a customer adds a product to their cart. At this point, the customer has to click on "continue" if they wish to go back to the catalog to continue shopping. They will also see their items in the shopping cart box. If this is set to "false" then the customer will stay on the same page of the item they are putting in the cart and will be able to see their items in the shopping cart box on the top right column (if you move this, then wherever this box is).
Allow Guest to Tell a Friend
Enables a box for the customer, when shopping, to send a tell-a-friend email about the store.
Default Search Operator
Gives "and' or "or" to use to search in the store.
Store Address and Phone
The name of the store owner's store, phone, and other information that will be seen by the customer when they use check/money order to checkout.
Tax Decimal Places
Pad the tax value this amount of decimal places. For example, if the cost of tax was $2, this would display as $2.00
Display Prices with Tax
Set to "false" and prices will not display with tax. Set to "true" and prices will display with tax.
There are many options in here, however we will only go over some of them briefly and the others we will visit a little later.
Minimum and Maximum Values. These are the minimum and maximum characters the user is allowed to enter in fields. For example, when filling out their name, if the minimum field is set to 2 for first name, they couldn't put just D for their first name. They would get an error if they attempted to do so.
Customer Details. This section is for what will be displayed and is required for the customer to enter. For example, gender is listed here. You may want to remove this as a requirement, but it's completely up to you.
Download. You will need to set this to true if you will be selling downloadable items.
